New Beginnings: Effect of the Force
by Chaos Marine Matt
Summary: The Republic stands tall in it's corner of the galaxy. But what happens when the Turians challenge their might? A first contact story. Rated M for all the usual reasons. I should also mention that this is a very Idealistic story, so sometimes some of the stuff written won't make sense. But hey, the bible doesn't make sense to me and it's been pretty damn successful. So why not?
1. Of battles lost and won

**_Hey, this is Chaos Marine Matt, for those expecting a new chapter in Days of Darkness, it's in the works. I just wanted to get this out while I could. On with the show._**

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**Space around the Republic Joint-Colony of Shanxi, August 27th, 2156 C.E**

A turian cruiser exploded as proton torpedos deployed by Y-wing bombers bypassed it's shields and slammed through the ship's armor, detonating in the cruiser's drive core. Causing a massive blue explosion as the ship was reduced to atoms. A CR-90 corvette's shields failed as it was simultaneously gutted by concentrated fire from the main guns of a turian frigate wolfpack, before they were destroyed by a hail of laser fire from a nearby Nebulon-B escort frigate.

The battle was going poorly for the turians. That was obvious to any observer, although no observer was more aware of how outmatched they were than the turian admiral Desolas Arterius '_Spirits damn it all. The intelligence we received said it was a bunch of pre-mass effect primitives. ' _he watched as another cruiser was destroyed by a wing of fighters. He growled, ' _Enough is enough, time to cut my losses'_

" All vessels. This is Admiral Arterius, fall back to the relay, frigate wolfpacks three through six will cover our retreat from those damned fighters, cruisers_**Palaven's Might**_ and _**Wrath of the Hierarchy**_will act as static defense. All other vessels, make for the relay at full burn and begin exit calculations.

"Sir." a communication's officer said, his subharmonics trilling confusion, " What about the ground forces under General Varsis, or the ships we're leaving behind?"

Desolas sighed sadly" They will have to fend for themselves until we return." He suddenly straightened, his subharmonics broadcasting confidence "And make no mistake. We will return. With the full might of the Hierarchy at our backs. We will crush these primitives under our talons and conquer their worlds, For we are the Turian Hierarchy! And we will never be defeated!"

The bridge crew gave a modest cheer, as Admiral Desolas Arterius's speech was transmitted to the remains of the fleet. The morale of the ship improved substantially.

Until the engines exploded.

**POV Change. **

"Fleet commander Dawn, the invader command ship has been disabled." Executive officer Hannah Shepard stated as explosions rocked the alien dreadnought. The reason being the massive turbolaser turrets mounted on the bow of the **RSV ****_Shanghai_**. Which had jumped in to unleash a volley of laser fire at the unsuspecting turian fleet.

Softly-Sings-At-Dawn pondered what to do with the surviving invaders, harsh songs of anger and revenge swirled at the back of her mind, demanding that she take vengeance for the warriors that fell by their hand and for the children slaughtered aboard the research vessel that opened the relay. At the same time softer melodies of mercy tugged at her heart strings as she looked at the devastation visited upon the invaders. Unfortunately, her duty as the fighting Queen of this colony decided her course of action. "_Concentrate your firepower on the remaining invader vessels, leave their command ship alone. I would have words with their warmongering commander. Send the fighter wings to destroy their rear guard. Also, achieve a connection with the ground warriors and contact Jedi Knight Anderson" _ Dawn sang to her communications officer, who began to relay her orders to the fleet.

Further explosions dotted the turian fleet as flashes of red and green light burst from the canons of the rallied defense fleet. A small group of turian ships tried to draw the fire of the defense fleet. But were ignored as the defense fleet focused on the fleeing ships. A turian wolfpack attempted to take advantage of this, but they were suddenly overwhelmed by a swarm of Z-95 headhunters and Y-wing bombers. Reducing the wolfpack to so much floating scrap in a hail of torpedos and laser fire. Things were looking dire, but the remnants of the fleet had made the relay. Where it immediately jumped away

**POV Change.**

Jedi Knight David Anderson drew his lightsaber and flicked the activation stud, igniting a glowing green blade, much to the horror of the turian soldiers at the other end of the street.

"Forward men! For shanxi!" David shouted as he lept over the barricade he had been taking cover behind. Inspired, the Shanxi guardsmen who had been holed up with the Jedi jumped over the wood and sandbag wall and charged, unleashing a hail of laser fire as they charged the turian soldiers. David took a point position, his lightsaber humming as he blocked the sporadic return fire from the turian soldiers.

**POV Change**

Private Tarek Desus of the 8th Legion knew that bladed weapons were archaic. Ever since the advent of fully automatic guns, the art of the sword had been reduced to nothing more than an expensive sport and a flashy set of moves for action vids. Privately, he wondered if the same rules applied to energy based swords as he saw the green beam of light carve a bloody swath through the front ranks of his platoon.

At this point Tarkek was seriously questioning his loyalty to the Hierarchy. It had been the hierarchy who destroyed that alien research vessel. It had been the Hierarchy that had attacked the alien colony. Tarek was just a dumb grunt thrown into the meat grinder by the uncaring admiral in the fleet above.

The alien warrior had slaughtered half the platoon when Private Desus made his choice. The warrior had moved to deal with Tarek's squad when he tossed his Assault Rifle to the ground and put his hands in the air. A few of the other soldiers around him did the same.

They were the only ones who survived.

**POV Change**

David was honestly surprised that the turians were even capable of surrender as he ordered the guardsmen to relieve the surrendering soldiers of their seemed at first glance to be war mongerers. He was about to move on to the next combat zone when he felt a faint tremor in the force. Like someone was indirectly drawing on it. David cast his perception towards the disturbance and discovered that one of the turians was pseudo meditating in a desperate attempt to calm down and not panic.

'_Interesting, I wonder how he would do in the order.'_

"Excuse me sergeant."

"Yes, master jedi?" The helmeted sergeant asked questioningly.

"Could you release that alien, the one with the blue and red facial tattoos to my custody? I am afraid something has come up, Jedi business." Anderson said in the even, diplomatic tone he had learned from Master Circe Sunrider as he indicated the alien he spoke of.

"Of course sir, though I will have to clear it with command."

Anderson smiled inwardly, he had been told long ago by Master Sunrider that he would train a unique padawan. And what would be more unique than the first alien force-sensitive the order had encountered? However, the sergeant interrupted his train of thought.

"Sir, Commander Dawn needs you on the _**Shanghai **_sir. A gunship is en-route now. She has also cleared your request. He's your problem now." the sergeant said as he turned back to his new prisoners of war.

**POV Change.**

Private Tarek was panicking slightly as his hands were bound together and his weapons removed from his armor. He had surrendered and been spared, but what would happen now? Would he be questioned by the aliens as to what their purpose here was? Or would he be tortured for the suffering of the people of this world? Or would he be marched in front of a firing squad and executed? He was doing his best to calm down, using the meditation technique he picked up from an asari who had anger issues. While the technique was more geared towards diminishing anger, it still helped him deal with his fears.

He had a distinct feeling that his fears might not be unfounded as the alien blade wielder walked over to the soldier overseeing the disarming of Tarek and his squad mates and struck up a conversation

"Esucxe em tnaegres" the warrior said in a questioning tone

"Sey, retsam idej" the soldier responded

"dluoc uoy esaeler taht neila, eht eno htiw eht eulb dna der laicaf soottat ot ym ydotsuc? I ma diarfa gnihtemos sah emoc pu, iedj ssenisub." The warrior said as he pointed at tarek

'_Oh shit'_

The soldier responded with what sounded like an affirmative "Fo esruoc ris, hguoht I lliw evah ot raelc ti htiw dnammoc"

The soldier pulled an item off his belt and began speaking into it.

'_Huh, thought that they would have something better than handhelds if they can produce effective energy weapons.'_

The soldier received an answer and gestured to two of his fellow soldiers, who pulled Tarek out of the group and frogmarched him over to the warrior, who lead the small group to a cleared space. They waited for a few minutes before one of the human's strangely shaped assault shuttles dropped down from orbit( think of the gunships from the republic army during the clone wars.) , the side door slid open and Tarek walked onto the shuttle at the prodding of his guards. Strangely, the guards stepped out of the shuttle as soon as he was aboard. The door closed and he felt his stomach drop into his boots as the shuttle took off. The warrior from before was on the shuttle with him. Tarek turned and studied the warrior, who had taken off the helmet he wore. The alien was disturbingly similar to asari, the only differences being the dark skin tone and short fur in the place of a fringe.

"Era uoy thgirla?" the alien asked.

Tarek shook his head, trying to indicate that he didn't have a translator. The alien seemed to understand. He (at least, Tarek thought it was a male) appeared to think for moment, then appeared to come to a decision. He stepped up to Tarek, and placed his hand upside Tarek's head

' _Is he psychic? Is his race similar to the asari?' _Tarek thought, before he felt something brush up against his mind, the intangible touch was gentle, it seemed to search through his mind until he found what he was looking for. Suddenly, a new language formed within his mind. Words, sentence structure, even a few insults suddenly found a new home within Tarek's skull.

The alien removed his hand from Tarek's head and spoke.

" Are you alright?" he asked, his voice gentle, but firm.

" Y-yes, how did you… did you…" Tarek stuttered.

"Do that?" the alien finished for him.

"Yes." Tarek answered, still slightly stunned from what had just happened.

" Through years of training and mental conditioning." the alien answered.

"Can every member of your race do that?" Tarek asked, his voice still quavering, not yet used to using the language installed into him.

"Only certain members of my race can, and it takes a lot of effort and concentration to pull it off. What is your name?"

"I'm Private Tarek Desus, of the 8th legion of the Turian Hierarchy." the turian answered honestly.

"I am Jedi Knight David Anderson, of the Shanxi enclave of the Jedi Order. And you my friend, have an interesting future ahead of you." David answered.

"What do you mean?" Tarek asked, still confused.

"All will be explained in due time. For now, you will accompany me to one of our vessels in orbit. You are my responsibility now. So for your sake I suggest you behave." David said as he released the binders on Tarek's wrists.

Tarek was shocked "I-I thought I was a prisoner?" he said questioningly as he rubbed his bird-like wrists.

"For now you are. But I am more than capable of disabling you should you choose to try to escape. I've never liked the site of someone in chains, so for now, I'm releasing you. Make trouble and I'll have to bind you again." David said earnestly. They heard a clunk sound as the gunship touched down. The doors opened to reveal a hangar bay. A squadron of Z-95 headhunters, which had been the bane of the turian invasion force for some time now, were currently being serviced in the hangar. They were in a special place cordoned off for shuttles. As soon as Tarek and David stepped off the shuttle, the doors closed back up and the shuttle took off. Heading back out towards the planet. No doubt to help collect the Marines that the fleet had launched upon arrival over Shanxi to help the beleaguered Shanxi guard.

David ushered the turian through the hangar bay to a nearby lift. Which quickly ascended several decks before opening into what could only be described as a kill box. Several heavy turrets and cover sections lined the back wall while the room up to that point was absolutely bare without even an alcove to hide in. The aliens were definately well versed in boarding tactics and defensive measures.

"These defenses would never stop a competently trained Jedi." David said as they crossed the room. Once again surprising Tarek. If these heavy defenses wouldn't stop a Jedi, what would?

They passed through several corridors and two more defensive kill boxes before they reached another lift. This lift was much smaller, only allowing two or three people up at a time. As they ascended once again. Tarek found himself wondering what he was going to. They had passed several places, including the brig. So why didn't they stop at any one of them? Where was he going?

He got his answer as the lift doors opened. He was on the vessel's command deck. Clusters of terminals and readouts surrounded a central island. Fully manned with officers shouting commands and directing ships. The central island had several massive displays which showed in holographic haptic interfaces the various fields of debris surrounding the planet and the actions of the fleet. And manipulating the displays and chittering to itself was a rachni queen.

David walked up to the rachni and bowed respectfully. " I have come as you requested Fleet Commander Sings-softly-at-Dawn. What is it that you require?"

All Tarek could think was '_Oh… Shi_t'

_**And there we have it, the first crossover story I've ever written. Review and tell me what I did wrong. Lore will be explained in future chapters.**_


	2. So do you want to be a Jedi?

_**Hello once again, Chaos Marine Matt here, back with another installment of the Effect of the Force. I have no beta for this story at the moment so this is just what comes out of my head. To answer a more pertinent question my readers have been asking. No, this isn't the republic from star wars, you would think the Citadel Council would have been contacted in the 3000 plus years the Asari have been mucking about in the galaxy. No, instead, this is a much smaller republic that has risen around a humanity that discovered the hyperdrive in the 2020's. Some of the background lore will be explained in this chapter. The rest will follow when I feel it is appropriate to reference it. To answer the rachni question: The rachni were saved from a derelict vessel by early hyperspace explorers of the Human Systems Alliance. We humans, being the bleeding hearts that some of us have the capacity to saved them and helped the rachni grow as a species. Also, to answer the as-yet unasked question, yes. There will be sith in this story. Can't have any epic saber duels if there's no one to duel now is there? I kid, they are actually a significant threat to Republic space and will play a pivotal role in the future events of the story. Anyway, long-winded author's preamble is over, enjoy the show!**_

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**Aboard the RSV Shanghai**

_"What is one of the invaders doing aboard my ship?" _ Fleet Commander Sings-softly-at-Dawn trilled in the minds of everyone on the bridge. Tarek was absolutely shocked that the Rachni was capable of speaking... after a fashion. The lessons he had learned in school had always described them as violent monsters whose intelligence was even lower then that of the krogan. They had never spoken before. So why now?

"This one is different, he threw down his weapons and surrendered. There was no need to kill him." David said as he tried to calm the volatile queen down. "Do not let your anger at the casualties the fleet suffered cloud your judgement. If we killed as indiscriminately as they did, would we be any better?" The question obviously stung the queen, and she seemed to calm down somewhat.

"There is something else that we must discuss at a later date. But that can wait. What is it that you require?" David continued, curious as to why he had been called up to the fighting queen's ship. The Queen looked... troubled, if you could apply that emotion to an insectoid creature.

"_I am afraid I am going to have to institute contingent six of the Jedi Order/Senate treaty. The call has been sent out to all temples and enclaves across republic space. The order has been called to war, along with the republic army and navy. I have contacted the High Admiral's Council for orders. Hopefully Sector Admiral Hackett will be able to give us a directive. Until then we will begin scouting nearby systems for invader activity." _The Queen turned towards Tarek and stared coldly at him. "_Unless our new found friend would like to be forthcoming about what he knows of his peoples colonies and bases." _

This brought up a rather pressing subject to Tarek. He was still alive, but should he still do his duty as a hierarchy soldier? Or should he abandon his former commanders in hopes that the being's before him would be merciful? He was badly conflicted. Then he looked at the Jedi Knight who had spared him. Maybe this is what he meant by what he said earlier. Finally, Tarek came to a decision that he could live with.

"I'll help you find my people's bases and fight beside you if I must. But please, if we come across a colony that I can identify. I ask that you spare the colonists." he asked as he crossed the room to stand before the Rachni queen. The queen blinked her multiple glowing eyes in surprise at Tarek's answer. Not expecting such an answer.

"_ Very well, we have managed to pull a list of coordinates from one of the destroyed frigates. The coordinates named several planets but we don't have anything else on them." _The queen turned towards a nearby officer._ "Shepard, bring up the list of the planets on the display."_

"Yes Ma'am."Officer Shepard answered as she turned towards the panel and typed in several strings of code. With a final tap of a button. The screen came up with a half-dozen planets. Tarek stepped forward and studied the panel. Several of the planets were of no consequence, minor colonies with small populations and non-existent defenses. Only three were of consequences. Gothis, a major training world. Seravis, a naval resupply post. And Larex, the prominent manufacturing planet of the cluster.

"Gothis... head for Gothis or Larex. Those two planets are the key to the defense of the region. Larex is renowned throughout citadel space for it's use of prothean proto-forges for mass production of ships for the Hierarchy fleet. Gothis is where most of the soldiers in Hierarchy are trained. Both are heavily defended with anti-ship cannons and a regular navy presence." Tarek said, unaware that most of what he said was rapidly being copied by several nearby ensigns. "Seravis is also a good target. It's a major resupply site for most of the patrol fleet's in the sector. Otherwise, that's it for target's of military importance. Everywhere else is a motley collection of minor agricultural and mining colonies." Tarek said as he indicated the planets that weren't important to a war plan. He just hoped that the aliens wouldn't target his home world of Sithis.

* * *

While Tarek was revealing what he knew of the local star cluster. Sings-softly-at-Dawn was privately conversing with David Anderson. "_Do you really think he is going to be your first padawan?" _She whispered softly in David's mind.

"_Of course I do. He has no real loyalty to the Hierarchy. From what I gathered in his mind few of his colony do. They were one of the small groups that was beaten into submission by the Hierarchy during the Unification wars. I feel if we destroyed the Hierarchy garrison of his home world we could get the populace on our side. He is loyal only to his colony. Secure that, and we have his allegiance for good." _Anderson thought as he looked over his potential new recruit.

"_It will be months before we find all of the targets, and weeks more before we get there." _Sings-softly-at-Dawn reminded David. He only chuckled.

"_More time for me to train him, imagine the symbolism if instead of myself or another Jedi being the first off the shuttle, it's Tarek swinging a lightsaber at the Hierarchy forces." _Anderson thought.

"_Your using him as a figure head." _Dawn stated, surprised by what she was hearing from him.

"_Not quite. He might not choose to be trained, and I'm not going to force him. I'm not a sith." _David said sadly, remembering the stories Master Circe told of the fall of Jack Harper. Every Jedi knew the cautionary tales. The actions of the dark side organisation of Cerberus were common knowledge to the people of the Republic, and a small number of sith warriors and sorcerers had been seen across Republic space. They were active, but only a moderate threat to Republic space.

"_Indeed you aren't my friend, I'm sorry I doubted you." _Dawn said, blinking her secondary eyes. She looked over at the turian, who was still pointing out possible targets and routes to take. Softly-sings-at-Dawn pondered then, what would the turian look like in Jedi robes?

* * *

**August 6th, 2154 c.e., Jedi quarters aboard the RSV Shanghai**

* * *

Tarek was sitting in the central room of the cabin assigned to Jedi Anderson. He was currently engrossed in a data pad that held much of the common knowledge of the Republic. The Republic had been formed 123 year ago, originally as an alliance between several interstellar governments. Namely the Human Systems Alliance and it's protectorate the Rachni Queen's council, the Wookie Clan Confederation of Kashyyyk, the Mon Calamari Combine, and the Iridonian Star Empire. Together, the conjoined nations had acted in a similar manner to the Citadel Council, providing safety and security for the various colonies of all member species and coming together to drive off invaders. The Republic in this form lasted for twenty four years before slaving ships of the Rylothian Slave Lords raided several Iridonian and Human colonies. It was later discovered that the Slave lords of Ryloth ordered this attack, believing the republic to be soft and divided. The only thing the raids achieved was drawing the allied species closer together. Forming themselves into a single entity and smashing the Slavers Union to pieces. The Twileks were subsequently absorbed by the republic in what was probably the best received invasion in known history. Republic soldiers likened it back to how american soldiers were received in Paris during world war two. On a completely different note. It turns out that humans and twileks can interbreed. Producing viable children of either species.

Tarek blushed blue as he thought of how this particular revelation came about. For the sake of his modesty, he moved on to a less arousing subject. What he wanted to know in particular was how the humans and the rachni met. Or why the rachni hadn't wiped them out by this point. A little searching and he got his answer. The humans had found a dormant rachni vessel, carrying eggs to a new world in the early stages of their intergalactic expansion. Humans, being the curious creatures they were, salvaged the vessel and collected the eggs for study. Much to the surprise of the xenobiologists studying the eggs. They began to hatch. An embedded Jedi made mental contact with the new-born queen Wanders-in-Dark-Places. A dialogue was officially opened between the two species with the Jedi acting as a intermediary. Something the Jedi seemed to be remarkably good atif the Republics history is anything to go off of. Well over thirty species had joined the Republic in that time. Several of which had been uplifted successfully by the Republic '_One more thing the Republic has over the Citadel Council.'_

The door hissed open and David walked in, carrying a tray laden with ration packs out in front of him in another display of his aura-less biotics. Tarek was actually pretty damn curious about that as nowhere in the general history given to him had they ever mentioned element zero. Its almost as if they had developed without discovering the mass effect. As the ration packs were set down on the small table in the center of the room. Tarek got up from his seat reclining on the couch and had a seat on a handy stool. He grabbed a dextro ration pack that they had salvaged from a turian wreck and tore into it as David dug into his own ration pack. They ate in silence for a while before Tarek spoke,

"So how do you do biotics without an aura? Is it like some special training or technology you guys have developed?"he said around a mouthful of simulation Lharsa meat.

"I beg your pardon?" David said in surprise.

"You know, biotics. I mean, how else could you pull off the amazing things you do?" Tarek said after he finished his mouthful of food.

"Perhaps you could explain biotics to me?" David said as he adopted a pensive pose.

"Okay... Well, biotics are the manipulation of gravity fields. It's done by people who have element zero attached to their nervous system at birth. You can usually tell when someone is a biotic by seeing the blue glow whenever they use their powers." Judging from the look of surprise on David's face, that wasn't what he was expecting to hear.

"No, that's not what I am, I have access to an ambient energy field produced by all living things. It grants me the ability to do things considered impossible by modern science. Make things levitate, see things before they happen,heal injuries rapidly, and even... persuade the weak minded to my point of view if I wish." David said in what was almost a lecturing tone.

Tarek was suddenly suspicious of David, after all, he did just admit to manipulating the minds of others. "You can manipulate minds?" he asked with a quiet growl. But if David was perturbed by it, he didn't show it.

"Only those with weak wills can be controlled. It is sometimes necessary while on duty to convince a local gang to lay their weapons down instead of just brutally slaughtering everyone in my way. We don't misuse our abilities to manipulate people. It's simply not the way we do things in the order." David said honestly. But Tarek was still unconvinced.

"And how do I know you aren't manipulating me right now?" Tarek challenged. David sighed sadly, it was always the same question out of every potential new recruits mouth. David decided to cut to the chase.

"Because you are booth strong willed and force sensitive. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't make you do anything you didn't want to." David said as he raised a hand. " For example, **Stand and walk to the other side of the room and back." ** David said as he waved his hand,, channeling the force into a _suggestion. _Tarek surprised himself as he began to rise from his seat. But he quickly re-asserted his will and sat back down. Then, something occurred to him.

"What do you mean I'm a force sensitive? What even is that?" Tarek asked as he continued to watch David closely.

"A force sensitive is someone who can draw on the Force. The same energy field I draw on for my power. Force sensitive is the collective title for any sentient being that has the potential to become a Jedi." David said as he leaned back in his chair. Interlacing his fingers over his abdomen as he waited to see Tarek's reaction.

Tarek was stunned, but he quickly recovered. "So I'm the same thing you are." he said slowly as if coming to terms with it. He was surprised when David laughed.

"The comparison between myself and you is that of a special forces operative to a child when it comes to force sensitivity." David said, still chuckling.

"But you just said..." Tarek began, but he was cut off by David.

"The difference between the ability to use the Force and the ability to control the Force are two totally different things. At the moment, the most you have is potential. Which can't be unlocked without intensive training. Which is what I was going to offer you if I can go without being interrupted." David said evenly. Still maintaining a cool disposition even with Tarek's hostile questioning.

"Me? One of your order's members? Why?" Tarek asked once he got over his shock for what seemed to be the sixth time this evening. His ration pack completely forgotten by this point.

"Well, why not? You have been an honorable person who made a decision that would get himself executed by his own government for the sake of saving civilians from the wrath of a superior force. The fundamental core of any Jedi is a willingness to sacrifice your own safety for the good of others. It would also have the upside of you not being given back to the Hierarchy when this war ends." David said evenly. Tarek looked... thoughtful at that revelation.

"What sort of commitment would I be making." he said quietly as he thought hard.

"Your commitment would be similar to what is expected of any Council SPECTRE. Your duties would be the protection of Republic space and upholding Republic law. In times of war you would be called upon to lead the Republic's armies into battle and report to Republic high command. In peace time, you have no duties but the ones I previously mentioned and you would report to the Master's Council or Grand master Sunrider of the Jedi order. Immediately with induction into the order you are considered a full citizen of the republic with all the rights and benefits that includes. Your salary will be only what you need to purchase necessities and maintain a dwelling, for wealth is not one of our goals. You cannot hold a political position within republic space so long as you are a member of the Jedi Order. Otherwise, there are no restrictions upon you and you can break republic law as necessary to maintain peace in Republic space." David said in what appeared to be a practiced voice. But Tarek had more important things to be worried about.

"That sounds like a heavy burden, but tell me something... Is it worth it? And I don't want any lies or recruiting drive spiel." Tarek asked as he got up and began to pace, now thinking so hard that he couldn't sit still.

"Well... the training is more difficult and dangerous then mandalorian training, and they send new potentials to kill some of the most dangerous creatures in republic space, but I still remember when I first connected with the Force. But when I first connected with the Force, when I felt the power that made up the Force. It was the first time I've ever felt truly alive" David said as he got up to stand before Tarek, who had stopped pacing and looked as if he had made a decision. The turian looked the Jedi up and down, from his muscular physique to his simple clothing to the ever-present laser sword on his belt.   


"Very will, consider me swayed. I would like to be trained to be a Jedi." Tarek said with every ounce of honesty he could muster. Standing straight and looking at the Jedi knight before him.

"And I would be honored to train you. Welcome to the Jedi order, padawan Tarek." Jedi Knight David Anderson said as he smiled at his new disciple. He turned back to the table and gestured for Tarek to follow him. "Now come and eat. Training begins tomorrow. You'll need your strength."

* * *

_**And that's a wrap for this chapter. I know that it's pretty Tarek intensive, but I promise that we will continue the war story next chapter. I like to focus on two or three characters at a time so I can relay the characters as best I can. As always, I am a writer and I need reviews to thrive. So please tell me what you think of my story. Also, I realize that what Tarek did was pretty uncharacteristic of a Turian, but bear with me. I will explain why he did it in a few chapters.**_

_**See you next time with an update to my story. Days of Darkness. have a look at it. You might like it.**_


	3. Where do your loyalties lie?

_**So hey, a lot of people are curious as to why Tarek so easily betrayed the Hierarchy. It's rather simple. Tarek's colony along with several dozen other Hierarchy Colonies never actually surrendered to the Hierarchy. in my head Hierarchy keeps many of the colonies under strict quarantine so a lot of the colonists have no other way to strike back outside of piracy or terrorism, which is my explanation for the many turian pirates encountered in the games. It doesn't make sense to me that such a duty-bound culture would have so many renegades. As we'll find out.**_

* * *

Hannah Shepard marched down the hallway, pissed beyond all belief. How could that damned Jedi so easily accept one of those turian bastards as his pupil? They were fighting a war with them! Not teaching them! She arrived outside of the turian's quarters and palmed the access panal. Storming into the room and taking the meditating turian by surprise. She whipped her blaster pistol from it's holster and pointed it at the stunned turian. Setting it on high yield. The blaster warmed up and began to whine.

"How'd you do it?" She snarled.

"Do what?" Tarek asked with a hint of fear in his voice. Knowing from the two week campaign on Shanxi that a blaster pistol whining like that meant that it could punch through tank armor, even if it drained the power pack on the first shot.

"How did you fool a Jedi? No one in the history of the Republic has ever been able to pull the wool over their eyes!" She shouted still aiming the blaster center mass.

"I didn't. I hate the Hierarchy just as much as you do." he said, fully calm now. He understood what was going on now, This particular conversation had happened before. Just in a different manner.

"Yeah, bullshit." Hannah said as she aimed the vibrating blaster at his head now. Anger fully twisting her features. "If you hate it so much, why'd you join the army? Seems like a pretty poor choice for an avid hater of the Hierarchy."

"It would be, if I had any other way of getting off my home planet." Tarek said as he turned around and walked away from the meditation mat he had been standing on and took a seat on his bunk.

"But before we continue. Why did you storm down here with intent to kill? I doubt we tried to kill each other at some point." Tarek asked, cocking his head.

"My husband and five year old daughter are down on Shanxi." Hannah snarled "I think I have a very good reason to be angry with your people."

"And I don't blame you. Spirits, I bet you even talked to the other soldiers you've captured. Your probably wondering why every other soldier is so spirit's damned loyal to the Hierarchy, right?" Tarek said with what sounded like an even tone, even though his sub harmonics were screaming with rage.

"Of course I am."

"Well it's rather simple, each one of those pretentious barefaced bastards was born on one of the major colony worlds or on Palaven itself. They've never truly experienced the brutality of the Hierarchy. You see,back before the Hierarchy existed, most turian colonies were independent of the homeworld. Eventually, relations between the various colonies... broke down, and a full out war was fought between the various alliances of singular colonies. Palaven only entered the war when the rest of us were weak and weary from the fight. Most of the colonies simply bared their throats to the Hierarchy and were happily absorbed. Only the colonies on the outer rim even attempted to resist them." Tarek said, his talons curling into fists.

"My colony was one of the few that stood against the Hierarchy, and they never let us forget it, even as they destroyed every major city from orbit. For the last thousand years my people have been treated worse then those taken by the Batarians. We were all branded with a mark showing our eternal shame for standing up and fighting when the rest surrendered." Tarek said as he lifted the loose shirt he wore, revealing an ugly branding burn in the soft flesh of his waist, between his armored front carapace and back plates. After giving Hannah a good look at the burn, he put his shirt back down and continued.

"Every day was a struggle on Sithis, there's no major industry or even decent housing, only what each family makes for itself. The few places on the planet that have anything even remotely resembling civilization like what I've seen off world is the Hierarchy's bases. Each one over the eezo and platinum mines. The only way to get food or medicine without finding it yourself is to work for the Hierarchy. And that means either dangerous mine work or signing up with the Hierarchy Military. By signing myself up, my mother and my sisters get a monthly ration pack and a basic medikit, which is a lot more then most others." Tarek said, anger slowly cooling as he felt the hopelessness of his former situation again through memory.

Hannah sighed and disabled her blaster pistol, holstering it. She had been acting irrationally to begin with. Having to endure hours of ranting from a 'General' Varsis about how the citadel council was going to shatter the 'weak' republic. An examination of the Turian general by Knight Siar. A Jedi Healer who'd arrived earlier today, had shown that the man had cracked under the strain of fighting the Republic reclamation force. Making all of her efforts futile and pissing Hannah off.

"Look... I'm sorry for lashing out at you. I should have better control but I had to deal with a complete prick of a turian who was so assured that the Turian Hierarchy would wipe us out without lifting a talon. I'd heard that you'd been assigned to Knight Anderson and I instantly assumed the worst. Like you were some kind of a sith in disguise or something." Hannah said as she took a seat at the table in the small cabin.

"And I don't blame you. Spirits I still have trouble trusting the Republic with a Rachni queen as a commander." Tarek added.

"What's your problem with the Rachni anyway? Have your species met before?" Hannah asked. Curious as to his reasons.

"They nearly wiped out citadel space when a group of Salarian explorers opened the relay leading to their home system." Tarek stated flatly.

"I think I know what your talking about, they weren't in control of themselves at the time. Commander Dawn's egg was laid just before her mother shipped her off with a half dozen of her sisters in a last desperate attempt to save their race from the war they had engaged in." Hannah said.

"Weren't in control of themselves? What do you mean?" Tarek asked.

"Someone was controlling them. We found a device on the ship the eggs had arrived on, but the resident Jedi took one look at it before reducing it to so much scrap with his lightsaber. Said something about how it was just oozing dark side corruption. Doesn't make much sense to me but, well, I'm not a Jedi then am I?" Hannah said, a small joke coming out at the end.

Tarek thought for a moment, "I don't know much more about the dark side then you do. Only that it's linked to the stronger emotions, hate and what not. And that it's bad, real bad for your spirit. I didn't press the subject when it came up with Anderson this morning."

"I wasn't ever posted on one of the Jedi worlds, so I wouldn't know either." Hannah said. Tarek perked up at the mention of Jedi worlds.

"The Order has it's own colonies?" Tarek asked, as he'd been under the impression that the order was a peace keeping force, not a political entity.

"Course it does, but they only take the worlds that no one else wants. Catachan, Aten 2, you name any death world, and the Order has a presence on it, if not ownership of it. They use the worlds for training for the most part" Hannah paused for a moment, before laughing "That's actually the reason the Jedi are feared throughout the known galaxy, they go through basic on worlds were special forces get eaten alive."

Tarek was surprised by this, but he was shocked by what Hannah said next.

"And that's not even the best part, most Jedi join the order at the age of twelve, sometimes younger."

"They force children to train for a military role on **death** worlds?" Tarek all but shouted, Hannah scoffed at this.

"Of course not, they never force anyone to join the Order, and the training on the death worlds only occurs for those who wish to follow some of the more hardcore paths the order 's not the main training course for every Jedi, but they are the ones that are televised the most. You see, most kids are clamoring to be Jedi because they see a Jedi nimbly ducking and dodging a landslide or calming some massive terrifying beast with a wave of a hand. I remember the look on my daughter's face when the doctor said she had developed force sensitivity. We couldn't calm her down for days after that visit." Hannah said, a small half smile illuminating her face as she thought back to that day. Tarek sort of understood what she was talking about, during one of his very few shore leaves, he'd seen a bunch of turian and asari kids playing at being Spectres.

"So... why isn't your daughter up here, training under one of the other Jedi? Isn't that what she wants?"

"We wanted her to have a normal childhood before she gets into something like that." Hannah replied

"I guess that makes sense. Well, with your desire to see me dead out of the way. I really need to get back to my meditation." Tarek said as he stretched and walked back over to his meditation mat.

"I should go." Hannah said in response and stood from her seat. She palmed the control for the door, only to be met by several drawn blasters. Two ship security officers were outside the room, the first officer, an armored Iridonian, spoke first. Calling through the door to the Turian on the floor.

"Padawan Tarek, are you alright? We got word that Communications Officer Shepard was on her way here with intent to kill."

"Yes I'm fine, and stop pointing your guns at her. We've worked out our differences, so this isn't liable to happen again." Tarek said from his position on the floor, The guards nodded and holstered their blasters. They stepped out of the way so Hannah could continue onward. She set out at a brisk walk for the CIC. She was due for her next shift.

* * *

**_I apologize for the Tarek only chapter, but I was getting a bit sick of people saying that I was doing Tarek wrong. In answer to that accusation I'm going to have to ask this, is every human exactly the same as the last one? The answer would be no. I am simply applying a more diverse personality to the Turian people. Also, I am a writer making a crossover fanfiction. There is already so much of a departure from cannon that I'll almost certainly have to go AU for the mass effect story line. On another note. I hope you liked the Shepard reference, I decided to make her a Jedi because My Shepard was an adept. So I decided to let her have some space magic instead of biotics._**


	4. Naval Operations

_**Hello everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. Let me tell you, it was a cast-iron bitch to get this one written. I try to keep you supplied in the best material I can produce. In any case, I'd thought we'd open with a little insight into what the Republic navy is doing in turian space. Now ladies and gentlemen. Shall we continue?.**_

* * *

**Securese system, Turian Hierarchy Space. August 12th, 2154 **

* * *

Captain Silek of the 218th patrol fleet was bored. His cruiser, the **Vigilance, **along with it's support fleet. Had been patrolling the borders of Turian space for a while now. The only excitement there'd been throughout the long patrol had been coming across a small Batarian smuggler's ship. Silek had desperately wanted that his flotilla be chosen for the suppression fleet sent through a recently opened relay. But his request had been denied by Admiral Arterius. Who gave some bull-shit excuse of "Needing to protect the local colonies from Batarian aggression"

Yeah right. As if the Hierarchy cared about any of the worthless dregs on the colonies out here. But, orders were orders, and like any good turian. Silek followed his orders to the letter. Even if they were ridiculously dull. Captain Silek would wish he hadn't thought those things in a short while. After all, Murphy is one mean son of a bitch.

* * *

_**Don't mind me, I'm just a line break**_

* * *

Commodore Oleg Petrovsky of the fourth Republic Rapid Reaction Fleet stood on the bridge of his Nebulon B-Escort Frigate. His ship, the **RSV** **Pripyat, **with it's escort of four CR-90 corvettes (respectively, **RSV Omaha, RSV Lincoln, RSV Hastings, ** and the **RSV Fremont) **were currently en-route to a little used system in Hierarchy space. The Securese system. They had been sent there by Commander Dawn and told to start causing havoc on nearby Hierarchy bases. Commodore Petrovsky's task force was one of three similar task forces who'd been sent to cause trouble behind enemy lines by the Rachni commander. The three commodores in command actually had a little wager going as to who got the most kills. And Petrovsky never lost a bet.

"We're approaching the system now sir." Navigation officer Flet said. The Mon calamari not turning from his station as he made the required calculations to leave hyper space.

"Very good Flet. Lorne, prepare the gunnery crews, I want our lasers ready to go the moment we exit hyperspace. Rilne, sound General Quarters and get the piolts to their ships. I want Wraith and Sword squadrons ready to launch once we exit to real space." Oleg commanded of his bridge crew. He didn't want to be caught out in the open with his pants down. Especially in enemy space.

As Oleg's orders were carried out, the **Pripyat** gradually slowed down and exited hyperspace. It's support ships following quickly behind. They entered the system above a nameless gas giant. Gaining an almost panoramic view of the system. It was mid-sized, with two rings of asteroids, one barren planet, and two gas giants orbiting a slowly dying red giant. The only important thing about this system( as the minerals in the asteroid belts were rather common) was that the system held three minor mass relays, all leading to the major trade ports in the sector. Many merchants used this system to get to the other ports quickly, despite the intense danger presented by several local pirate gangs.

"Alright, no time to be sitting still. Benson, perform a system scan, look for any element zero signatures. Should be easy to spot." Oleg ordered as the powerful electronic systems aboard the **Pripyat **warmed up. Nebulon-B esccort frigates weren't solely military vessels. Many served as exploration vessels and pleasure cruisers during in the private sector. As such, they were required by design to be multipurposed, they could be anything from command vessels such as the **Shanghai** to front line vessels like the **Pripyat** to even medical vessels like the **Saving Grace. **Their ability to multiclass made them the work-horse of the republic navy.

The sensors quickly scanned the system down and created a 3-D wireframe map of the system. A number of flashing dots representing the Eezo signatures in the system. A group of six caught Oleg's attention.

"Magnify on this group." He said, indicating the small group of signatures. The map zoomed in,showing the vessels in an obvious patrol formation. The largest ship in the center of the group while the smaller ships formed a diamond around the main ship.

"The formation indicated exhibits significantly higher power levels then any other ship in the system. It seems we've found a military patrol." Officer Benson said from her position at the sensor station.

"Very well, launch a probe to get a closer look. I want visual confirmation that they're Hierarchy ships before we strike." Oleg said as he turned away from the holotable to face the viewport. A moment later, a probe droid blasted out of the main hanger and quickly jumped to lightspeed. Arriving within visual range of the formation within moments. The video feed came in a moment later, showing five ships shaped like birds of prey. They'd found their targets.

"Alright, contact our escort and tell them to prepare for battle, as soon as the fleet is ready, jump to lightspeed and drop within 2,000 meters of the turian ships." Oleg ordered as the official battle stations klaxon sounded. The five ships aligned their prows with the turian fleet and jumped.

* * *

_**Don't mind me, I'm just a line break.**_

* * *

"Sir, sensors just picked up an unidentified energy signature on the edge of our sensor range. It's to small to be a manned vessel, but the strange thing is it dosen't seem to have any Eezo in it." A sensor officer said as he rapidly looked over his display.

"Oh?" Captain Silek asked. Everything in the galaxy had a mass effect generator in it somewhere. So how could this thing not have one.

"I know, these readings don't seem to make any sense sir... Wait! It just established a data link! It seems to be transmitting... Video?" the sensor officer shouted as the bridge whirred into activity. Something was finally happening, and the crew was jittery over finally getting some excitement. They weren't disappointed as five ships suddenly shot in from nowhere. Four of the ships were slightly smaller then a standard turian frigate, having a strange hammer-like head and what looked like a dozen engines welded onto the rear of each ship. The fifth ship was significantly bigger then the others, and much stranger in design. The vessel seemed to at first have been designed by a batrian or elcor, as both species used the same type of heavy, utilitarian construction that the unknown ship used. But neither species would leave such an obvious design flaw as the thin spine connecting the main part of the ship with it's engines.

"Send in the first contact package." Captain Silek said without waiting. There was procedure to this sort of thing and he'd be damned if he didn't follow it. The bridge was quiet for a few minutes, before an officer spoke up.

"Sir, we're being hailed. Voice only transmission." the officer said from his post.

"Play it." Captain Silek said as the bridge grew quiet. It occurred to him then that no species should have been capable of translating a whole language in under a minute. But, by that point, it was already far too late.

"Your arrogance knows no bounds Turian, prepare to burn for the crimes of your leaders.." a coarse, angry voice said in translated galactic basic. The small fleet turned to broadside the turian fleet. Rows of cannons lit up and bolts of red energy flew from the cannons. They passed right through the turian fleet's barriers and melted the hull of each ship. Causing massive explosions as Eezo cores exploded and torpedoes cooked off. The entire turian fleet had been caught completely off guard, so they were destroyed easily.

The Republic fleet was overjoyed with it's crushing victory. They never realized that the short statement sent by Commodore Petrovsky could be intercepted by others. Or that someone might have been watching the short slaughter.

* * *

_**Don't mind me, I'm just a line break**_

* * *

Captain Alissa T'Valen of the Asari trade frigate **Athame's Mercy **watched in horror as the Turian patrol fleet was destroyed with almost contemptuous ease, she continued to watch along with the rest of her crew as the turian ships blew up. After watching the destruction for a few moments she turned to her ship's pilot.

"Get us to the Citadel. The Council needs to know about this."Alissa ordered. She knew that the journey would take several weeks to finish. But she needed to tell the council what she'd just witnessed. The fate of the galaxy depended on it.

* * *

_**And that's a wrap, I know, it was a little short, but I needed to get this out before I got back to work on my main story, Days of Darkness. It's been a while since I updated there. For those of you who don't know what my other story is about... well, you'll have to read it won't you? But,for generosity's sake, here's a snippet of the first chapter.**_

Sam was about to move in when an explosion of pain flared on the side of his head, knocking him to the ground with a dull thud. Sam tried to pull his knife out only to feel a boot slam down into his crotch. Causing him to nearly black out from the pain as stars wheeled in his eyes. He curled around into a fetal position only to see the ganger behind the statue fall to the ground, blood pouring out from under his hood. The blonde pulled a machete from a concealed sheath and slashed Scarface across the arm that was reaching for his gun. Causing him to reel backwards and howl in pain. A bullet came from nowhere, punching through Scarface's knee and knocking him down. Another bullet shot by, flying far from Scarface. But it really didn't matter, because the next swing from the blonde took Scarface's head off.

Sam realized that he was in serious trouble. He still couldn't move due to the agonising pain of a split testicle. And the person who knocked him over was still standing over him, he turned his head to see another person in a black hoodie. The knives he was holding seemed to be a strange combination of knife and brass knuckle. Not that that was very important, as the sheer hatred in the eyes looking down on him made him want to piss his pants. Sam stayed where he was on the ground, fully believing the silent promise that he was about to die. Footsteps could be heard as the blonde and a previously unseen gunmen ran over. They stopped when they saw their compatriot standing over a not-yet dead ganger, the blonde decided to speak up.

"What are you going to do with him Matt?" the blonde asked as he pulled out a cloth and started to wipe the blood off his machete. The look on Matt's face told the blonde everything he needed to know, but Matt decided to elaborate for Sam's benefit.

"I'm might kill him or I might let him go, it depends on what he wants to tell us about his gang." Matt said, a low undertone of menace clouding his voice. It didn't take long for Sam to spill everything, gangers he knew about, who recruited him, where a local safehouse was, the works. When Sam finished, he asked a vital question.

"Are you going to let me go now?" he asked, a tremor of hope echoing through his voice.

Matt looked thoughtful for a moment, before holding a hand out to the gunmen, who tossed his pistol to Matt. He cocked the gun and pointed the barrel between Sam's eyes.

"No. You must understand, you've seen our faces. I can't let our friends and family suffer your gang's retribution. But thanks for the information." Matt said earnestly, before pulling the trigger.

The world got very bright, than very dark. And Sam knew no more.

_**Dark, huh? Anyway, I'll see you all next time.**_

_**For The Republic!**_


	5. Mission Start: Rebel Dawn

_**Hey all, sorry this took so long. I had to update my main story which took a long time. Our story returns to Tarek. Who has just gotten a training lightsaber. But before we begin, I'd like to mention that Tarek is being put through a specialized training regimen that is meant to turn the trainee into a competent warrior as quickly as possible while instilling the fundamentals of the Jedi code. Think of it as Luke's training on Dagobah during The Empire Strikes Back. It's the same basic principle. Anyway, roll film.**_

* * *

Tarek looked at the small metallic cylinder in his talons. It was about a foot long and chrome plated, with only a single metallic stud on the side for an activation switch. He had fully learned the meditation techniques that every Jedi used. And was able to access the Force at any given time. Master Anderson had decided to move onto the next step of his training. Combat. Tarek had accidentally discovered telekinesis while he was meditating a few days ago. He'd been meditating on the floor like normal, but when he opened his eyes, he'd found that almost every loose object in the room was floating around him in a loose orbit. His control over his telekinesis was still rather weak, being only able to control small objects. But it was there, and his control was growing steadily, so Anderson was going to start him in saber training today.

Personally, Tarek was amazed at how much he'd been able to do in a only a few weeks' time. He still remembered the amazement he'd felt when he'd first touched the force...

**Flashback Start**

_"Focus Tarek. You must focus inward. Let go of your surroundings. Let go of your thoughts. Let go of your emotions, and look inward." Master Anderson instructed calmly and quietly. Much to Tarek's frustration. He'd been trying this meditation thing for days, but he'd gotten nowhere._

_"Look this isn't as easy for me as it is for you. I've got a lot on my mind." Tarek snapped at the calm Jedi. The Jedi seemed pensive for a moment before speaking again_

_"I think I know your problem. Focus instead on your breathing, only your breathing." The Jedi said evenly. Desperate for any route to get this over with, Tarek did as he was told. He consciously began to order his breathing as he closed his eyes._

_Inhale, Exhale._

_"Focus on your breathing and let your mind drift." The Jedi said quietly as Tarek began to relax._

_Inhale, Exhale._

_"As your mind drifts, reach outwards, feel the room around you." _

_Inhale, Exhale_

___"Keep breathing normally, and calm yourself further. Feel, don't think."_

_Inhale, Exhale. A light twinkled in the darkness, just beyond his vision._

_"Do you see it now? The light at the edge of your vision?"_

_The light began to grow, moving from a dull twinkle to a faint glow. _

_"When the light is at it's brightest. Reach for it."_

_The light was now a beacon, Tarek began to swim through the darkness around him, making for the light. He reached the light, a spectral talon reached for it... and his mind exploded with sensation. It was like melding with an asari. Only a thousand times more intense, he could feel everything aboard the ship. The crewmen going about their duties, the prisoners in their cells, even the strange vermin living on the hull of the ship. He could feel the light of it all, pulsing and changing as life flowed around him. He felt the emotions of the crew and the energy of their existence. If turians were capable of crying, he would be weeping._

_Then, the light was cut off from him as his emotions rose in the rapturous experience. He fell back to his body, sitting in Anderson's quarters. The severance was jarring. Shaking him badly. He opened his eyes to see Anderson standing in front of him, holding out a glass of water, which Tarek took. As he downed the water, Anderson spoke again._

_"You have just taken your first step into a larger world my friend."_

**Flashback End**

Now here he stood, in the middle of the **Shanghai**'s gymnasium, holding a practice version of the weapon of his new order. Tarek was even wearing a specially made set of robes that the ship's tailor had sewn. It's collar was significantly larger then the average set of robes to account for his cowl. It was weird to be wearing the robes yet... strangely fitting. Like he was in a uniform. Which, come to think of it, he was.

Anderson stood across from him, also holding a practice blade. The Jedi knight was also wearing his robes, and looked to be completely at ease in them. He spoke at that moment to pull his padawan from his thoughts.

"Tarek, are you ready to begin?" He asked politely

"Yes, I'm ready to start." Tarek said, done reminiscing for the moment.

"Alright. First, your going to be learning a style of saber combat known as Shii-Cho, It is simple and easy to learn for most people." Anderson said as he activated his blade. Tarek pushed the stud on his own weapon, feeling a steady vibration as the blade hummed to life. He took the blade in both of his hands like he'd seen Anderson do and held it loosely in his hands.

"I will provide an example of the sequence I would like you to learn." Anderson said as he shifted his feet. Coming to stand with both his feet turned outwards slightly, blade held vertically in front of him. He lowered the blade so it was in a position to stab and thrust forward through the air. from it's early thrust, the blade swung up and around the Jedi's back, coming down in a slice off of the right shoulder, the slice was repeated off the left shoulder, cutting an imaginary opponent in half diagonally from shoulder to hip. The blade swung from it's position aimed at the hip of the imaginary target, slashing the target in half. The motion was repeated. Then the Jedi took a step back, the blade slipping back over the Jedi's shoulder in a prefect reversal of the earlier move, another step back and another reverse shoulder slash. The Jedi then stepped forward, the blade's point coming from it's position at his hip, making a straight vertical slash upwards. The blade then came back down, cutting the opponent's head in half. The Jedi finished the series of moves with a forward stab, and lowered the blade's point to the floor.

"Now you try"

Tarek managed to get about halfway through the series of moves before he overbalanced on the backwards slash and knocked himself over, landing flat on his back. He was helped to his feet by a laughing Anderson. He glowered at Anderson, who was completely unphased.

"Oh calm down, you won't learn this overnight Tarek, but rest assured that we will be practicing this at every chance we get. Become skilled enough and you'll get the honor of facing off with one of the other padawans at your level. Most of the Jedi enclaves will start showing up in a few weeks' time, so we had better get cracking." Anderson said simply. With a sigh of resignation, Tarek raised his blade again. This was going to be a long day.

**_-Three weeks of back-breaking training later-_**

" _The fleet has almost finished gathering Anderson,we will be ready for war within a week's time. Is Padawan Tarek ready for his first mission?"_ Dawn asked, her voice trilling with anticipation. The whole bridge crew was on edge, and had been for several weeks as the bulk of the fleet arrived from their standard duty bases. Dozens of frigates and cruisers had come streaming in, from the modern galactic civil-war era ships to the mothballed fleet of Alliance Venator-class star destroyers, the fleet was ready for war and armed to the teeth.

"I believe that Tarek is competent enough to begin accepting assignments." Anderson replied, confident in his Padawan.

"_Very well. Padawan Tarek, your first assignment will be to go behind hierarchy lines and incite rebellion amongst the colonies. Your first target shall be Sithis. You will not be doing this alone, once you have managed to rally a population, send off a signal and an assault fleet already positioned behind the lines will jump in to assist you. Do you accept this mission?" _Dawn asked politely.

"I do, provide me with transport and I'll get started immediately." Tarek said as he stood a little straighter, honored to be given a mission so early on.

"_Very well, in the main hanger, a shuttle will be waiting for you. Remember, your mission is to incite rebellion amongst every one of the oppressed colonies. And be careful." _Dawn reminded quietly. Tarek nodded and bowed before the fleet commander, then turned and left, making for the hanger.

If only he knew what would be waiting for him.

**_- In a dark place, where the dark side reigns-_**

Darth Cerberus looked out over the dying star that his station orbited. Blue cybernetics having long replaced his old eyes. He'd been reminiscing about the days when he'd still been a jedi. But was brought out of his thoughts as one of his subservient sith stepped up. Kai Leng, a loyal, if arrogant, sith assassin.

"Report." Cerberus ordered the kneeling assassin.

"Senator Charek will be... late for the war meeting in the senate, and the republic is short two Jedi scum." the assassin said gleefully. Fully content with killing Jedi.

"Very good Leng, for this success, I name you a Lord of the sith. Go and select your acolytes after our meeting is through." Darth Cerberus said evenly, not even looking at the now ecstatic sith lord.

"Thank you my lord, you won't be disappointed!" Leng gushed as his burst of emotion could be felt across the station.

"Calm yourself Lord Leng. I have a task for one of your apprentices."

* * *

_**Dun Dun Dun! Tarek get's a mission and the Sith are plotting! What happen's next?**_

_**Fuck if I know, I make this up as I go along. Anyway, I know it's short, but I'm having a really hard time working with both this story and my main story, Days of Darkness. Listen, I know this is shameless self promoting, but if you actually like my work, I suggest reading Days of Darkness, All my best work goes into it.**_

**I'll try to get another chapter up as soon as possible**


	6. Rebel Dawn: Welcome home

_**Hello all. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, finals kinda took up all my time. In any case we'll be entering the first big central story line of this story. The liberation of the rebel colonies and the formation of the Free Colony Protectorate. It will mostly follow Tarek and various rebel leaders. The next arc will directly involve the ongoing war between the Republic and the Hierarchy, which will be occasionally mentioned throughout Tarek's own adventures. The third and final arc will be diplomatic relations between Citadel space and the Republic, with changing viewpoints between various politicians. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. Roll the film.**_

* * *

The night was quiet on Sithis. Most of the oppressed turian populace had already bedded down for the night to avoid the local predators. Thus no one was awake to see the black stealth shuttle coast in to land on top of a ruined turian housing complex. The shuttle landed, disgorged a single individual, then lifted off again. Silently escaping on quiet repulsorlift engines.

Tarek turned back and watched the stealth shuttle escape, watching as the environmentally-reactive hull shifted into a black mass of night. Then the shuttle was gone. Tarek looked away from the night sky and made for the other side of the bombed out roof. He was dressed in a lightly armored stealth suit made by the republic, standard issue for their infiltrators and spies and specially made for turians. He had with him a stealth belt, which masked him from electronic sensors as well as dampening the sound of his footsteps, as well as a small number of grenades and a Brawler IX pistol taken from a Turian Blackwatch operator who had been killed by a republic marine during the liberation of Shanxi. He of course was carrying his light saber, but that went without saying since he was a Jedi.

Tarek came to a hole in the roof, which showed that two of the lower floors had collapsed. He would have found a different way down, but there was no other. With no other choice, he gathered the Force around him, then jumped, using the force to slow himself down as he fell. He landed lightly and completely unharmed from the twenty foot drop. The scene surrounding him reminded him of what his people had lost. He was in what had used to be an apartment complex before it had been hit by a Hierarchy bombardment. The planet had been so devastated by the Hierarchy that they'd been unable to save many people from the wreckage, as evidenced by the many turian skeletons that littered the rubble.

Tarek shook his head sadly, he had felt a small flare of anger when he saw the ancient slaughter, but he released his anger instead of holding onto it. He reminded himself that he was here to free his people, not take revenge on the Hierarchy. And with that, he moved on, navigating the rubble. It was going to be a long night.

**Time Skip**

Dawn rose over the ruined city as a group of native turians went out on their daily hunt. Wielding ancient weapons that had been carefully repaired and maintained over the millenia. The turian hunters went out to slay local beasts that threatened their community as well as to gather food, making the hunt more important then most would think.

Today's hunt was a dangerous one, a massive Tyrannox (think of a giant dextro spinosaurus with poisoned claws and you'll get the idea.) had rampaged through the small village the night before, killing many of the old and infirm of the village, who could not escape quickly enough. The beast was still in the area, so the party of hunters had stalked off to put it down. No one expected the hunters to return. Even Hierarchy patrols had fallen to the beasts before. But it was the hunter's duty to the village to protect it, even if they just led the Tyrannox away to a different area.

The lead tracker of the group, an old hunter named Drax, pulled his antique rifle off his back and loaded a clip into it (yes, their weapons are so old that they still mostly use gunpowder). He heard the Tyrannox smashing through the local architecture, further weakening the old skyscrapers that still stood in parts of the city. Drax ordered the group to split up and enter the old structures. Telling them to go as high up in the old buildings as they could so they could get some good shots in on the giant carnivore. The fastest runners in the group would get the beast's attention and lead it away from the village based in the old spaceport while the rest of the group would ruin the Tyrannox's senses with well placed shots.

Drax climbed up into a nearby building, an old apartment building, making the third floor before stopping and finding a window to shoot from. Putting his team at head level with the Tyrannox. They waited, guns clasped tightly in their claws. They didn't have to wait long. The chosen bait, a young turian female, only ten years old but remarkably fast on her feet, came around the corner of the building across the street. The Tyrannox in hot pursuit. It was a horrific monster, over 50 feet tall when accounting for the sail on it's back, dark green and brown coloration helped the beast to hide in the massive jungles around Sithis, allowing it to get the drop on the super massive herbivores it hunted. For unknown reasons, this one had come hunting in the ruined city. It's near destruction of the small community of Turians living in the destroyed spaceport showed that the beast was entering mating season, when the Tyrannox's got extra violent. It needed to die, and quickly.

Drax and his teams of snipers unloaded heavy amounts of lead into the beast. Aiming for it's head and mouth. Several streams of purple blood coming from the Tyrannox's mouth and nose showed they were hitting the thing. But it wasn't helping much as the beast charged onward towards the hunters, distracted from it's younger prey. It smashed headfirst into the building holding the other team of hunters, their screams as the building collapsed on top of them echoing through the ruined cityscape. It turned to crush Drax and his team. Three things happened at once. The Tyrannox turned to charge, Drax loaded another clip, and a soft snap-hiss could be heard.

The Tyrannox stomped forward, coming up to the window where the turian hunter team was still pouring lead into it. Out of nowhere, a turian in strange armor jumped down from above, a strange glowing length of blue light in one hand. This light turned out to be dangerous as the unknown turian drove it into the Tyrannox's eye. Killing it as the energy blade destroyed the main part of the Tyrannox's brain. The great leviathan fell to the ground, shaking the local area with it's massive body. The strange turian jumped clear of the beast before it hit the ground, landing gracefully on the ruined street. Drax gathered his remaining hunters and climbed back down the spire.

The group came to stand before the strange turian who'd helped them. Seeing his advanced looking armor, Drax inferred that the turian was part of one of the Hierarchy's patrols, so he spoke up in the dialect of the Hierarchy, being the only one who was capable of it.

"You have my thanks for the rescue, I was afraid that my hunting party was doomed." Drax said slowly so he didn't mess up the words. He was surprised when the strange turian spoke in the native dialect of Sithis.

"No thanks are needed, I'm only here to help." the turian said as he turned to face the party. Drax was shocked. It was Tarek! The boy who'd joined the Hierarchy to help his mother and sister.

"Tarek? What in the name of the spirits are you doing here? I thought your tour of duty wasn't finished?" Drax asked in rapid succession. He wanted to ask about the strange weapon Tarek had, but he felt other questions were more pertinent.

"About that... I have something I need to say, but it needs to be in front of everyone back home. It involves everyone on Sithis." Tarek said as he clipped the hilt of his strange blade like weapon onto his utility belt. Drax had a strange feeling that this was good news. So he was willing to wait.

"Alright then, let's go home, we've got a lot of catching up to do." Drax said as the group packed up their weapons, then set about the grim task of collecting the dead. They were only able to grab one of the fallen hunters, until Tarek lifted a boulder off the pile telekinetically, which revealed the other two members of the three man team. One was dead, his skull crushed by the rock fall. But the other Turian was still alive, with only a broken leg to worry about. The hunting party patched him up as best they could before setting off.

**Time Skip**

The village built into the ruins of the space port was abuzz with chatter. One of their own had returned from Hierarchy service, and he had something to tell the village. Everyone gathered in the meeting hall of the village, which was built from the remains of an old hangar bay, surrounding Tarek, who stood on top of a rusted hulk of a vehicle so he could be seen by everyone. While most of the people in the village thought he was here to issue an edict from the Hierarchy, the more observant of the group noticed a complete lack of Hierarchy insignia anywhere on Tarek. A slight hum of conversation buzzed in the room, but was quickly silenced when Tarek cleared his throat.

"I come bearing grave tidings. The Hierarchy has started a war with a new alien power." He said, to an immediate outcry from the village gathered around him. One shout rang out above the others.

"We will not fight for the Hierarchy!" was shouted by a member of the crowd, to loud roars of approval. The shouting continued for a few minutes before Tarek managed to calm them down. When he could be heard again. He held his claws up in a gesture of surrender.

"Listen, I'm not here on the behalf of the Hierarchy. The Republic sent me to ask for your help. The Republic is winning the war, but they can't spare any soldiers to help us." Tarek said, which struck the gathered turians dumb.

"However, they have a fleet waiting outside the system, ready to attack. If we can disrupt the Hierarchy garrison, I can get the fleet to come and free us from the Hierarchy. But we NEED to take out the Hierarchy bases before the fleet can commit. Will any of you fight with me?" Tarek said to the village. Who were understandably shocked by Tarek's admission to betraying the Hierarchy. Murmuring began among the crowd. Many of them apprehensive. No one had challenged the Hierarchy in generations. Despite their shared hatred for the Hierarchy, many people were terrified of it's military might.

"I will." Drax said as he stepped from the crowd, rifle still slung across his shoulder. "I've had enough of those Hierarchy pricks. Anyone who'd try to drive them from Sithis is alright in my book."

"As will I, this is our home. It's time we took it back." another turian said as she stepped forward from the crowd. Slowly, more and more turians stepped forward, pledging their support. Eventually, most of the village stepped up. Ready to kill some of the Hierarchy's soldiers. Tarek's mandibles twicthed into a smile as the village dispersed, going to gather weapons and make ammo.

Little did anyone in the village know. The flames of rebellion were already burning.

**Meanwhile, near a Hierarchy Eezo mine.**

"Forward men. Fight on! For Sithis!" a tall turian in hunter's gear shouted as his group of rebels charged the Hierarchy base's perimeter. A turian in heavy armor stepped out of cover only to be hit by a liberal spray of stolen mass accelerator fire. The turian soldier went down in a shower of blue blood as he was riddled with shards of metal. Only five of the originally twenty turian garrison were still alive. Two centurions with riot shields, a medic desperately trying to get their commanding officer stabilized, and a tech who was trying to repair a comm unit to warn command with. The centurions were defending with their shields while gunning down rebels with precise pistol shots. But there were too many Sithis rebels for the centurions, and the hail of answering fire finally broke the shields that had withstood so much shots. Both turians died quickly.

The tech lasted longer. He stopped his desperate repairs and launched a sabotage at the crowd of turian rebels coming his way, disabling a lot of their guns. He then pulled out his assault rifle and unloaded as many shots as he could into the rampaging rebels before the mob got to him, what happened afterwards was to graphic for the author to relate. Suffice to say had he lived, would never have kids again. The medic and dying base commander didn't last much longer, but they weren't killed by a medic had stablised the commander when he was yanked off his feet and pulled toward a dark figure. The figure impaled the medic on a red lightsaber just as the base commander came round. He couldn't move due to the massive blood loss he was suffering from. So he could only lay back and watch in fear as the dark figure stalked up to him, his red blade humming. The figure picked the injured turian up and held him at face height allowing the turian to see his killer, the alien beneath the dark cowl had yellow skin with dark markings and a number of large horns adorning his head. Cold yellow eyes stared without pity at the dying turian.

"What... What are you?" the commander asked, before a searing pain lanced through his stomach. The turian looked down at the red blade stuck through his stomach. His vision began to fade as the zabrak dropped him to the ground, before he lost consciousness, he heard one phrase that filled him with terror.

"I am Sith, and this world is mine."

The commander died, his last thoughts of his failure to stop this thing.

**POV Change**

One of the Sith's dominated turians walked up to him and bowed low.

"My lord, the mine is secured, we are transmitting an all clear signal, what are your orders?" the corrupted turian said in as meek a tone as he could manage.

"Have some of your men put on uniforms of hierarchy soldiers and tell them they are to pretend to be hierarchy soldiers. We must not alert the hierarchy that we are here." the Zabrak sith said as he silently contemplated Lord Leng's orders. He was to conquer this world and slay the Jedi padawan here. The sith didn't like that his orders hadn't been more specific. But he was only an acolyte, and had no say in the matter. _'It wouldn't matter in the end.' _the sith thought. _'No mere padawan is a match for me.'_

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_**To those of you who asked, the sith order in this story are structured after the one sith, with Jack "Darth Cerberus" Harper at the top of the Hierarchy. See you all later, and please review, I live off of reviews.**_


	7. Rebel Dawn: Fallen Garrison

_**Sorry all, I've been in a creative slump recently.I only just developed the plot for the next chapter. To those who think I'm sending Kai Leng against Tarek at this point... y'all are crazy. Leng is an ordained sith lord, I highly doubt a newly minted padawan would last more then ten seconds against Leng, who is a fully fledged sith assassin. Anyway... on with the show!**_

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The siege of the Main Sithis base by rebel forces was going slowly. Tarek had spent weeks collecting soldiers from every major settlement while covertly raiding Hierarchy supply bases to arm and armor his soldiers. But even with numerical superiority and the home-field advantage, the fighting had been slow grinding along. The only reason this campaign continued was the fact that the local patrol fleet had been blasted from the sky less then a week ago. Tarek remembered fondly the day the sky rained burning metal.

_**Four Days Ago...**_

"Sir, it appears that the traitor colonists are rebelling." a comms officer said from his post on the bridge of the Cruiser **Defiant. **The commodore in charge of the local patrol fleet straightened up in surprise. The colonists hadn't actively attacked the hierarchy in centuries. Why start now?

"Give me a situation report." The commodore asked as he stretched and yawned, having been dozing slightly at his post from the years of routine inactivity.

"Sir, large numbers of the local colonists are attacking a number of our bases. Two have already been over-run and Lieutenant Vrellin has requested orbital support. Your orders?" The comms officer said with excitement, reflecting the mood of most of the command staff.

"Load the mass accelerators and take a bombardment position in low orbit. Contact the frigate captains and tell them to prepare for fire support missions." The commodore ordered as he moved to the over watch post for the bridge, an elevated plinth above the rest of the bridge crew's positions.

The old cruiser fired it's engines and began to move slowly towards the designated position in low orbit above the contested zone on Sithis. It's outdated cannons warming up as they were prepared for their first use in years. Nothing happened in this sector, so the hierarchy hadn't updated any of the ships out here in the quarantine zone. Why would they need to? It's not as if anyone from citadel space actually knew that this sector still existed, or the fact that there were still rebel colonies in existence.

The ship slowly meandered through the debris field left over from the ancient conflict between the rebels and the Hierarchy, the shattered ships and devastated orbital platforms attesting to the unstoppable wrath of the Turian Hierarchy. If the scanners on board the cruiser had been updated at any point during the last decade, the ship might have noticed the eighty miniature power signatures spread throughout the debris field, but the scanners were modulated to pick up element zero, not power signatures. The cruiser was about halfway to it's designated position when things started to take a turn for the worst.

"Sir, I'm picking up a tight-beam communication burst from the planet, it's not directed at us." The comms officer reported.

"Can we decrypt it?"

"Sir, it's only two words. 'Begin Assault'." the officer said from his terminal, confusion apparent in his voice.

"What could that mean..."

"Sir! We just picked up a radiation burst in high orbit over the planet, five ships just appeared between us and the planet!" The sensor officer shouted as the republic fleet jumped back into realspace from hyperspace. Without pause the republic fleet fired upon the slowly mustering turian fleet, destroying many frigates before their captains could be warned of what was happening. The fighter squadrons hiding in the debris field flared their engines and fell upon the remaining vessels. The commodore aboard the cruiser had only a moment to realize they'd been trapped before a hail of proton torpedoes smashed into his outdated cruiser. The slaughter in orbit took less then five minutes for the Republic to finish up. Then the fleet turned their attention planetside. To the doomed turian garrison.

Many turians on the planet below, both rebel and hierarchy alike, gazed up in awe as the blasted remains of the turian fleet burned up in the atmosphere.

_**Present day...**_

The command center shook as stolen artillery pounded the base, smashing into the kinetic barriers surrounding the base. Lieutenant Arcis Vrellin looked out over the tactical display in dismay as he looked at the hopeless situation before him. With the support of the ships in orbit, the rebels had driven hierarchy forces back at every turn. Every perimeter base had fallen, along with the vehicle depots and supply stations. All that remained of the Hierarchy's forces were two badly depleted platoons of soldiers, three tanks, and a single squadron of fighter craft. Lieutenant Vrellin would have normally sent out a call for aid to Gothis, but the fleet in orbit had destroyed every comm buoy in the system and the only base with a transmitter powerful enough to send a distress call was the Eezo mine on the other side of the continent. Which, despite his hard line connection to the base, had gone strangely quiet.

The command center shook again, only this time, the shimmering blue barriers protecting the base collapsed. A fearsome roar sounded as the gathered rebels charged the base's disabled defensive perimeter. The remaining Hierarchy soldiers overheated their guns, firing into the oncoming rush of rebels as the remaining tanks fired into the crowd and the fighters strafed the horde, but it was all for not. The wave of rebels rolled over the soldiers holding the line and clambered aboard the tanks, loading improvised demolition charges and other explosives onto the vehicles before jumping clear. Destroying the tanks easily. The fighters didn't last much longer, shot down by republic starfighters. All that stood between him and the rebels now were some of his best soldiers and extensive internal defenses. He just hoped it would hold.

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Tarek gathered together a group of well armed rebels for the final assault on the republic base. His team consisted of Drax, the old hunter from his village. Severa, a skilled young technician with stolen Hierarchy gear. Marth, a tall, powerfully built turian with a shotgun. And Nelth, one of the very few biotics on Sithis. This team had orders to capture or kill the Hierarchy Commander.

As the team armed themselves, Tarek looked each of the brave rebels over. They were about to liberate Sithis, so Tarek wanted to remember each of them.

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_**Horrendously short, but I'll have two chapters with up to four K words in each in the next few chapters for this story. Below will be a description of our intrepid team. Using the Mass Effect 1 talent system for their abilities.**_

Drax-Infiltrator

Sniper Rifle LVL 8

Fitness LVL 7

Severa-Engineer

Hacking LVL 8

Decryption LVL 6

First Aid LVL 6

Pistol LVL 3

Marth- Soldier

Shotgun LVL 6

Fitness LVL 6

Assault Training LVL 4

Nelth- Adept

Pistol LVL 5

Throw LVL 6

Warp LVL 5

Tarek- Jedi Guardian/Soldier

Lightsaber Form 1: Journeyman

Force Push Skill: Novice

Force Speed Skill: Novice

Force Jump Skill: Novice

Pistol LVL 6

Assault Rifle LVL 5

Assault Training LVL 5

_**To explain the rating system for Jedi skills, it goes like this.**_

_**Novice: Weakest, just learned**_

_**JourneyMan: Weak, some skill, still have much to learn**_

_**Adept: Competent  
**_

_**Ronin: Can't be touched be common mortals.**_

_**Master: Good lord, you're not seriously considering challenging this person are you?**_

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_**We will back in a few days with the base assault, thanks for reading!**_


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